


Decent Of Courage

by Jazz_Miester



Category: Transformers
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Other, Transformers - Freeform, War, how do you tag, original charecters - Freeform, pov character - Freeform, yall help me with this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-18 21:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18126872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jazz_Miester/pseuds/Jazz_Miester
Summary: "If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?" A chorus of 'I don't knows' and 'Hook up with so and so' went around the room but one femme in particular remained silent. "What about you Arc? What would you change?" Remix asked. Always the curious one she was. Arc threw back the rest of her energon and shook her helm."I wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger back at Praxus." The room fell silent. It wasn't often that she spoke of her past. "After all, I always did tell Takedown that hesitating is the first step to get killed. An now look at me. Alone with a bunch of bots I don't know and a broken promise to my little brothers. " She stood up and strode out of the room her mask clashing together in front of her face."Loosing them is the only thing I regret in this world. After all. Hesitating is what got me here in the first place."





	Decent Of Courage

"The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge."  
                        -Shakespeare

 

 

They were lucky they dove into the ditch when they did. The bombs and missals may have quit raining down around them but the surrounding buildings were still collapsing. The makeshift roof that Emp-wave had thrown over them squealed from the excess weight above. Starhunter and Takedown glanced at each other in the dimly lit ditch. Emp-Wave hasn't moved, hasn't said a word since their separation from Arc. The comm lines were down and they couldn't feel her through the bond. So she was either blocking them or. Starhunter shook his head. It wouldn't do them any good to think like that. They need to focus on getting out first then they could go looking for her. Emp-Wave hissed as he shifted a surge of energon spilled passed expose plating. None of them had noticed the large con before it was too late. That's when they had gotten separated and Emp-Wave was injured. Arc had lead the psychotic mech away. They were sure that it was dead by now. Arc's size against its was an advantage alone. But it could have also been a hindrance. They won't know unless they find her. If they could do that at all.

How was it they were together such a short time ago? Starhunter nudged himself closer to Takedown who threw and arm over his younger brothers shoulders, drawing him in close. His older siblings had wanted him to stay back at base but admittedly they were better together than a mech short. Starhunter looked upwards as the ground stopped shaking. They almost hadn't even noticed the silence. Emp-Wave finally opens his optics and moves to stand bit Takedown quickly stops him.

"You need to be careful Imp. You're still leaking energon pretty badly." The elder brother growls and moves and energon soaked servo revealing a patch of bare circuitry. His armor may be dense but at times, and as much as he hated to admit it, the enemy could get the upper hand. It's just a matter of how you handle it. One wrong move and you're on the other side of the ground.

"It's not going to get any worse than it is already Takedown. And besides, we need to get out of here before anymore Cons try to come down and finish everyone else off." With that Emp-Wave stand up and throws their makeshift roof off. Takedown was the first to climb out quickly followed by Starhunter. The two pulled Emp-Wave out together. And there they stood side by side in the aftermath of the bombings. Grayed out frames layed scattered around them the fallen rubble from the buildings doing very little to hide something that has become so common placed. A thick smog had fallen over the city carrying with it the smell of burnt circuitry and lubricants. Emp-Wave knelt down then plucking an object from a small servo.

"What is it?" Takedown asked leaning over to look. Emp-wave opened his hand revealing an energon soaked toy. Takedown regretted asking.

"Mesh toy." A sparklings toy. None of them said anything after that. They take the time to remove the rubble from the youngling and who must have been their caretaker. The two are placed side by side and the toy laid on the younglings chest as the mechs take their leave. Being left in the aftermath of battle was nothing new to them. Leaving a bot short, however, was entirely new and utterly terrifying.

No one cares about the dead except those who mourn them. Hopefully they won't have to do the same.

They were hoping that this time would be different. They were, to put it bluntly, guns for hire. Many Autobots were confused about them. Wondering why they hopped from base to base and crawling out from abandoned battlefields. They were usually broken, bleeding, but very alive. Some thought that they were combiners and many who went to hire them were disappointed when they found out they were not. This is what the small family were known for. More often than not, those who bothered to go back for them found them crawling out from broken rubble. Leaning on one another for support, battered, sometimes unconscious, but not once could they recall them being apart. But it often didn't matter if they survived. What the others cared about were their friends, comrades, and others they saw as family. Arc and Emp-wave always received the blunt end of the screaming and the yelling. Sometimes even the tears when they found out that their friends wasn't coming back. It was to often of that. It sometimes confused Emp-Wave that they would yell at them. The work they did was far from pretty. Him and his siblings were built for it and have been doing this work for a long time. The bots that came with knew this and so did their friends. Maybe that's why he didn't handle the criers. 

One time Takedown had been hurt after a scouting mission gone bad. That's usually when Arc comes in. She had gone in after her younger brother and in the end her decision was an easy one. For her at least. The choice to choose between an almost dead mech and her brother. Family wins out every time. The mech that had been hired hadn't seen it that way and tried to send the group on their merry way without payment. Pissed, Emp-Wave left a destroyed room behind with the data stick of information his brother had risked his life for laying neatly in the center of it all. It took three years for the mech to contact them for compensation. Likely he had needed them again and wanted to butter them up. Arc told him where he could shove it. So that's why when Starhunter had ran in with news form Optimus Prime himself the two eldest were set on edge.

"This may be the break we need sis" Emp-Wave leaned back in his chair arms crossing over his barreled chest. He watched as his older sister came in form their brothers room. She sat across from him her visor and mask retreating with an audible hiss.

"I know Imp but." She hesitates. "What if this turns out like last time. We nearly lost Takedown." She copied her brothers position, crossing her long legs as she shook her helm. "You can't really go berserk on a Prime." Emp-Wave chuckles.

"Well, I could, technically. But its a matter of how many times, for example, once. I'm pretty sure that's a one way ticket away from the land of the living." They both laugh at this. Arc holds the data pad the message came in on. Who would have thought such a little thing could have a huge impact on their lives.

"What do you think Imp?" Arc's silver optics cast a haunting shadow on her face when she looks up. Emp-Wave sits up then and leans forward to take his sisters servos into his own. 

"You know what I think Arc." Both of them stare at their hands. Arc's left servo was slightly deform from never healing properly. The tips of her fingers were worn away from years of work. Emp-waves was nearly completely stripped of paint with a few twisted fingers. Both hands covered in scars. A testament to the amount of work he does. He breathes in deeply, vents hissing form the excess air.

"We will go where you go and we'll do this together. Like always."

"Like always." She echo's back watching as he got up to get his guitar. He sits back down on the chair and began playing. Both ignore the opening door and the entrance of their siblings. Emp-Waves baritone wove around them as he began to sing. Arc leaned back into the chair and looked out the large window. Trying to find Cybertrons' moon through its smog filled sky she sighed. She had a lot of thinking to do that cycle.

Arc had left early that morning leaving a quick message to Emp-Wave on where she was going. The sound of these large cities was something she was sure she would never get used to. The yelling from bot to bot even the way tires screeched against the ground. It wasn't the same sounds she grew up with. Then again, most of these bots haven't lived in the same harsh conditions she and her siblings were used to. The morning air wasn't as clean either. Nothing ever was any more the thick smog over the sky not helping anything. But still, a fight in a back ally was a quieter sound than the hissing transport pod in front of her. She had to duck and stay crouched when stepping onto the transport pod. Arc was hoping that there would be very few bots, oh boy was she wrong. The pod was the only one leaving that early in the morning so she had assumed that very little bots would be there. Apparently they all had the same idea as her. Her being almost a whole bot taller than the majority of them though kind of put her in an awkward potion. She rocked and swayed with the pod. The buildings around them passed by in a swift blur reminding her of the time she had spent a week painting the Crystal Gardens in Praxus. The rain had come so swiftly she had no choice but to leave her canvas behind. At the time she thought it had been ruined but the more time she spent thinking about the blurred colors she regretted throwing it in a nearby bin. Someones bound to either of tossed it or kept it by now. More and likely it was the former.

The pod hissed as it rolled to a stop the door automatically opening. She was quick to step off and stretch her aching back struts. They really needed to invest in pods for bots her size. It was a good thing she had left Emp-Wave behind though. Arc doubted you could have gotten him through the door coated in oil let alone just walking on in. Arc began walking towards the building ignoring the stares she got from the bots who stopped to stare. As she stepped up to the large doors of the building a small red and white mech stopped her from stepping in. She hadn't noticed the booths built into the wall. The poor thing had to crane its neck to look her in the optic. Well, visor.

"Designation and purpose please." Arc pulled the data pad from her subspace and handed it over to him.

"Arc. I'm here to see Primes S.I.C about a business proposition." The little much fumbled with the pad an looked up at her with wide optics. Must be new, she mused, or easily excitable to have been so startled. 

"Yes. Of course! Silver!" The small mech called out. Another bot came from the back. "Could you take over? I'm supposed to take this femme to Optimus Prime." Arc stalled for a moment before following after the hip high mech. Taking her straight to the top. She was used to talking to a bases second or third in command. Vary rarely did the main commander wish to talk to her unless they had a job no one else wanted. And even less often did those jobs go down well. She should take this as a honor, she guessed, to be asked by Prime himself. Arc just wanted to know why he wanted her family and what would have the Prime looking for someone else to do his work rather that risk his own men. The little mech rattled on, telling her how much of an honor it was to be asked personally by Prime himself to bring her to him. "Little ole' me! Really!" She took in her surroundings then allowing the mechs prattling to melt into the background. Arc noticed the larger windows as they went up and the hushed whispers of those around them. The walls were all the same muted gray color. She hated that shade of gray. To often she had woken up to it and all to much had she been the cause of that color. The little mech stopped in front of a door. "Well, this is where I leave you. IF you ever need help getting around my name is Click-bate! And with that the wandered back down the way they came.

Arc stood in front of the door wonder if she should knock. She had made it this far and if they could get this job maybe they wouldn't have to bounce from place to place as much. Maybe Starhunter could finally finish his lessons in that Science Academy he loved so much. All she knew was that she and Emp-Wave would do whatever they could for their younger siblings. Arc brought her hand up and knocked on the door and waited. And waited some more. Dread set in. What if that mini took her to the wrong place? What if- The door slides open stopping her train of thought. There was a table in the center of the room surrounded by mechs. A hologram was set up in the middle of the table and through it was Optimus Prime himself.

"Come in. We were just finishing up." So she did by stepping through the door and off to the side. A red mech on the brink of fritzing was staring at her and she did the same through her visor. No one could see in, she knew that. But somehow it felt like he could. It took her a second to realize that the talking had stopped and all optics were on her.

"I believe that I gave that message to a young mech." The bot that spoke was defiantly an enforcer of sorts. And at least if he wasn't now he was one at some point. He held a stoic disposition with door panels arch high. Arc sets the data pad she hand in her hands down and watches as its passed down to said mech.

"That was my youngest brother you were talking to." He nods his helm bit the Prime looks vaguely confused.

"Brother? I was unaware that you two were related." Arc scowls beneath her mask and visor.

"All three are my brothers. If you ask for one you get all of us." He turns toward the enforcer. 

"They are family? Why wasn't I told this Prowl?" Prowl plugs a data stick into a drive. A document of Arc and her brothers replaces the hologram on the table.

"It says nothing on their individual documents." Arc crosses her arms over her chassis.

"We found it makes most bots not want us if they know we're family. Don't really know why but we found if we took it from the documents it made getting a job a lot easier." The majority of them seemed to understand. A few looked concerned. Yes, she knew that they were family, yes it would affect some decisions. But what did they have to fear? 

"Are you sure Prahm? That they're still good for the job?" Optimus leans over the table and looks over at Arc. Thinking, calculating. He begins swiping through her documents and stops on her last report.

"Can you tell me what happened here? Without telling me as if though you where filling out another one of these." Arc shifts. It was because of this job they almost lost... She cocks her helm to the side.

"You really want to know what happened?" A visored mech leaned back into his seat.

"He wouldn't have asked if he didn't wanna know lil' lady." There was a hidden snarl in his voice. Understandable, seeing as the job was to go under cover and unearth information on energon deposits. The more the Autobots had the better they could fight the Cons. Question is, whose been spreading what rumors to make these mechs so venomous.

"Fine. You want the real story?" Arc bit out. "I'll tell you." She neared the other end of the table two red mechs on either side of her. 

"The mech in charge, Rebound, contacted me and my brothers. As a group. After the debriefing we decided that the best course of action was to send in Takedown first. Despite his size he makes for a good scout." Arc could feel anger bubbling up inside her and did her best to keep it from showing. "I'm a hacker. A coder. My job comes in after Takedown's. I always go in after him. Rebound wanted to send in one of his own scouts along with Takedown." Arc leaned forward on the table. " I tried to talk him out of it. I told him what would happen and exactly what it is we do. Rebound wouldn't listen and sent his mech in anyways." Arc vented deeply. "Takedown went in with him and under my instructions managed to get the information on the energon deposits near Kaon." If they were not paying attention before Arc certainly had it now. "I was going well until the Cons shift change. Apparently Rebound hadn't bothered to check if the guards schedule had stayed the same before we began." Arc stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest. "And it's my fault for not asking. I take full blame on that. The Cons attacked my brother and the mech. I never got to learn his name. By the time I got in all but one of the Cons were dead and my brother was hurt. Badly. The other mech was knocking on deaths door." She shook her helm. "I saved my brother in the end and grabbed the coding. I. I would have gone back for the mech. Of not to help him bit bring back a body for his crew to properly bury. And that's all they would have been able to do."

"And why's that?" Optimus asked.

"In all my years of functioning, not once have I seen a mech live without a spark in his chest." No one says anything. "When I got back wit Takedown he was in the process of dying. I barley got him into the med bay when Rebound told me he wasn't going to pay. Oh by Primus was I pissed. I was standing there, in the hallway, covered in my little brothers energon and this mech had the fraggin audacity to tell me I wasn't getting a single shanix. That's not what pissed me off. It's the fact that he held little to no sympathy for what had just happened to me and mine that pissed me off. I told Rebound what happened as calmly as I could. I told that mech what I would do if something like this happened. I made it clear that family came first." Arc shrugged her shoulders. "So when Emp-Wave heard what happened he trashed the room we were staying and we left the data stick with Rebound. We left right after Takedown was discharged."

"There's more. Is there not?" Prowl asked.

"Ya. It took them three years to call us back on any sort of compensation. I told them to shove it up their tailpipes." The mech next to her chuckled.

"I like this femme." Arc rolled her optics. Optimus was quietly speaking to Prowl and the visored mech. Optimus turned towards her. 

"You do realize we have been given a different story?"

"And yet you called us in."

"That I did. And do you know why?" Arc shuffled.

"Bots only call us in when they have a job to dangerous for them to do. Most don't want to have to put themselves in a position to choose." Optimus looked at her a mournful look in his optics.

"We called you in for your families unique skills and for what you all do." He rounded the side of the table and stood in front of Arc. His hand came up and rested on her shoulder. "And form what I have heard. A chance to make a home." Arc wasn't surprised that he knew that she and her brothers bounced from placed to place. Many like them did the same. When a job was done they were expected to leave. NO one wanted to expend their supplies more than they had to. No. What surprised her was the offer to stay. To make a home.

"Whats the job?"

Arc was right when she said that Emp-Wave wouldn't fit in the transport pod. So they walked though the bustling city to the base the next day. Starhunter, however, was waving around his brothers and sister exited by the shop stalls and the bustling of other bots.

"Do you think they'll let us stay? What will it be like at base" Do you think we'll meet anyone taller than Imp?" Starhunter's older siblings chuckled, Takedown partaking in the questioning as well.

"Well Howler." Arc began. "We will be able to stay at the main base." That got the younger mech to perk up and rattle of a million other questions. Emp-Wave slowed down from his position up front and to his sisters side.

"Are they really going to let us stay or kick us out like every job before?" Arc could hear the worry in his voice.

"From what I understand Imp, we get to make a home there." The two stopped to watch Starhunter and Takedown buy some rust sticks. "We can do good by them now. Give Howler and Takedown the chance they need to get out of this life." Emp-Wave set his hand on Arc's shoulder.

"You've done everything you could to get us here sis. I can take it form here." Arc grinned from beneath her mask and was stopped form replying by their brothers exited yelling.

"We got you and Imp one too!" Starhunter shoved the overly sticky treat into his sisters hand. The femme had a big sweet tooth. Arc looked over at Emp-Wave who was already crunching away at the deep read stick and winced. She never understood how he could eat something that spicy. The four of them continued on. Arc ran into Click-Bate again who showed them to their new quarters. It was a funny sight to the on lookers. A mini bot in a group of literal giants. Upon showing them their room the mini bot turned to leave only to jump a mile high when thanked by Emp-Wave.

"Uh huh. No problem." Starhunter snickered. Everybot assumed that his big brother was a scary, grumpy mech. But if you look closely you could see the mischievous grin slowly spreading across his faceplates. He got a thrill by teasing others and causing general mayhem. Hence the nickname. And to prove it further, upon entering the berthroom Emp-Wave pulled Takedown into a headlock while calling out.

"I call top bunk!" Takedown began struggling and yelling back.

"No way! You'll break the bunk with your fat aft!" Emp-Wave let his brother go and tweaked an ear final. Arc was laughing in the back while helping Starhunter onto the other top bunk.

"That would be a way to go. Death by Imp's aft." Emp-Wave growled.

"Oh ha ha." But he was laughing to, heaving Takedown onto the other top bunk before flopping onto the bottom berth and immediately passing out. Takedown and Starhunter was quick to follow suit. The four left to get their shift schedules a little while later and left to go get energon. They didn't come back until late into the nights cycle. 

Arc was sitting up on the berth leaning her back against the wall. A data pad rested on one leg. It was worn down in places from years of use. She was writing away in it. Surrounding the drawings of her brothers in writing.

"I hope that this will all work out in the end. A new start. Starhunter may even get to finish his courses. Emp-Wave could finally settle down a little and work on his music. This has to work for us. I need it to work for us. If this ends horribly I don't know what will happen. I don't think I could handle this any longer." Emp-Wave grunted and rolled over.

"Go to sleep and quite worrying sis." Arc smiled.

"You know me Imp. I can't until I know everything is in place." Emp-Wave huffed.

"If you don't recharge then I will sit on you until you do."

"C'mon guys! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" A pillow flew onto the floor from Takedowns halfhearted attempt to throw it. Emp-wave grabbed the pillow and threw it back up, giving his sister a pointed look. Arc sighed and turned the data pad off and laid down. It was going to be a long time before she fell into recharge.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you all think! All reviews and comments are appreciated!


End file.
